Sunni tribesmen help fight Sunni insurgents

I'm glad to see that there are Sunnis who have not joined forces with al Qaeda and are willing to fight to end their occupation of their territory:

Iraqi security forces backed by Sunni tribesmen killed dozens of suspected Sunni insurgents over several hours of fighting Wednesday in a village in western Iraq, Iraqi police officials said Thursday.

The fighting was unusually fierce for an Iraqi-led operation and was also notable because of the collaboration of tribesmen in volatile Anbar province. In recent months, the U.S. military has aligned itself with dozens of tribal sheiks who are collaborating in an effort to drive the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq from the vast desert territory.

The clashes on Wednesday began about 1 p.m. when insurgents attacked a village near Fallujah, about 35 miles west of Baghdad, and ended about six hours later when Iraqi soldiers, police and the tribal fighters killed 50 suspected insurgents and captured 80 others, according to Abdul-Karim Khalaf, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry. Khalaf declined to say how many Iraqi security personnel were killed or injured.

"This is part of the Interior Ministry strategy to support the Baghdad security plan in targeting terrorism in the areas surrounding Baghdad," he said. "The tribes in this area refused to join al-Qaeda."

Also, further proof this is surge is not being fought like the previous attempts to gain control of Baghdad:

In Baghdad, a U.S. military commander said American and Iraqi forces would launch "full-scale operations" inside the expansive Shiite district of Sadr City, according to the Reuters news agency. U.S. forces do not maintain a visible, full-time presence in the militia stronghold but have increasingly used targeted raids to capture leaders of the Mahdi Army..."We have conducted special operations in Sadr City for some months, but this will be the first time we will launch full-scale operations there and the first time we will have a permanent presence there," Col. Billy Don Farris, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division's 2nd Brigade, told Reuters.

"We are going to go to every building and every house and incrementally clear the area," he said.

Now the question is this: do the Democrats support the surge if it appears to pacify the area? Or do they keep saying that we need to pull our troops from Iraq?

Tags: Iraq, war, Sunnis, al Qaeda